Spiritual treasure

Regarding Sr. Helena Burns' recent column "Christ is the good and truly beautiful," it is worth noting that the entire Vatican art collection has a book value of one Euro because it is deemed priceless: a patrimony of humankind. Beauty is the inestimable gift of the Holy Spirit, and why great art engenders such awe. Via Pulchritudinis is arrived at through the Muses but it is at its most sublime when it traverses Via Dolorosa. It is manifest in Pope Leo's coat of arms - the Order of St. Augustine - a closed book with a heart pierced by an arrow. It is this encounter with the ineffable that Dostoevsky was referring to when he wrote, "Beauty will save the world."

Michael Dias,
Markham, Ont.